A small group of protesters marched down Wellington's Lambton Quay today to protest what it says is government inaction over the Rena disaster.
The container ship struck Astrolabe Reef, 20km off Tauranga, at full speed early last Wednesday The situation has deteriorated daily as poor weather moves the massive ship around on the reef, and efforts to offload its 1700 tonnes of fuel oil have repeatedly failed.
The ship's hull is failing and there are grave fears it could break up.
Liz Willoughby-Martin, a funding and finance co-ordinator, told APNZ she was moved to protest by what she believed was an "incredibly slow'' response from the Government.
She said there had been two opportunities to stop the Rena before it got to the Bay of Plenty; two weeks ago it was warned about problems with its safety record during an inspection in Bluff and the crew was questioned about a near-miss with an oil tanker off Napier two days before it ran aground.
"If they'd actually stopped the ship ... that would have avoided the whole problem.
"The fact that they had been stopped in two different ports, that raises questions of why they were allowed to come into New Zealand waters in the first place.''
The protesters marched to Parliament's Bowen House in the hope National MPs would come out and listen to them but none did.
Ms Willoughby-Martin said she had wanted to ask them whether they considered the response to have been fast enough.
"If there's a threat, do we try to make it look like everything is fine when actually it's not, and I think that's a big question here,'' she said.
Lucy Bailey, who was protesting with niece Sophia Brown, 10, and nephew Hugo Brown, six, said she was concerned about the "incompetence'' being shown in dealing with the aftermath of the grounding.
"There isn't much being said that is really giving people a lot of confidence,'' she said.
But one onlooker, Allan Johnson, had a go at the protesters, saying they were trying to turn it into a election issue when it had nothing to do with the Government.
He said the captain and second officer had been charged and it was their fault, not the Government's.
Mr Johnson, who admitted to being a National supporter, said it was easy to blame people rather than come up with constructive solutions.
"It is my beach. I'm part Maori, tangata whenua, and I'll tell you what, National is doing a better job than you are, you bunch of losers,'' he shouted at protesters.
He told APNZ the protest was ridiculous and said people were too quick to blame others.
"I think this sort of stuff is a pathetic attempt at trying to attack the Government.
"There's better things to do in life than complain ... they're not experts in it, they're not coming up with solutions, they're only coming up with problems.''
